Born in
Mainz, Renneisen grew up on a farm in
Raunheim,
Hesse, Germany. He attended the in
Rüsselsheim. He played as a percussionist in a band in Frankfurt clubs. After his
Abitur, he studied theatre, German and philosophy at the universities of
Cologne and
Mainz from 1960 to 1964. He then studied at the
Westfälische Schauspielschule Bochum. After graduation, he was engaged at the
Schauspiel Bochum,
Theater Dortmund and
Staatstheater Darmstadt, among others. In Darmstadt, he was inspired by
Rudolf Sellner. He has worked freelance since 1977, for the
Staatstheater Stuttgart,
Theater Bonn and , among others, and also for several open-air theatres. He has frequently played in TV series such as
Tatort,
Der Alte,
Derrick,
Ein Fall für zwei and
Siska. His roles have included Mephisto in Goethe's
Urfaust, Cyrano in
Pavel Kohout's
Der arme Cyrano, the title role in Brecht's
Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Herrn Arturo Ui, and Salieri in Shaffer's
Amadeus. In 1995, he began to stage his own theatre productions on tour, presenting for example Patrick Süßkind's
Der Kontrabaß,
Die Sternstunde des Josef Bieder and
Deutschland, Deine Hessen. Renneisen has performed the play
Der Kontrabaß for more than 30 years. He has spoken in more than 800 radio plays. In 2016, he received the
Rheingau Musik Preis for his life's work on stage and TV. In 2018, he appeared at the
Rheingau Musik Festival in a show titled
Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts, borrowing the title of
the novella by Eichendorff (in English given as
Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing) and presenting Renneisen's life including 50 years on stage, in literature and in music. Renneisen is married, has two daughters and two sons, and lives in
Bensheim. He is the maternal uncle of English actress
Alex Kingston. == Awards ==